I’m pleased to announce the release of a very special book by High Point, NC, native Glenn R. Chavis.

In honor of the occasion, Cat’s Cradle Books has published its first print catalog, our current list of books related to African American life, history, literature, art, culture, and folklore. For a copy of this catalog, contact us at info@catscradlebks.net.

Glenn has written a compilation of information about the African American community of High Point, North Carolina from the incorporation of the town in 1859 to the sit-in era launched in 1960. Glenn, born and raised in the black community during a time of segregation, has spent years researching the community’s history in government documents, city directories, newspapers, school records, and hundreds of other pieces of the past.

His book contains 41 photographs of life in High Point’s black community, most of them never before published. Our Roots, Our Branches, Our Fruit is a groundbreaking book; earlier focus on local history in this small New South city has been almost exclusively on the white community and on business and industrial leaders in particular.

I was deeply honored to serve as editor of Glenn’s book. The layout and design of the interior are also my work. My editor’s preface, I hope, does the author justice. Bob Brown, a High Point native and former White House adviser, contributed a foreword. The High Point Historical Society is the publisher of record, and several local donors funded the cost of publication.

Signed copies are available from the High Point Museum, which is presently the only outlet for this important book. Future volumes in Glenn’s series are planned. They include an upcoming sourcebook of information about segregated black schools in High Point, a study of black churches, and potentially several historical sourcebooks of land deeds held by High Point’s African Americans. Glenn is also a storyteller, and many hope that he will eventually publish an anthology or two of his well-researched personal essays and vignettes about High Point’s black history as well.